George Cave

Chair Ladder

Ita had never been climbing outdoors before, so Cat and I took her in at the deep end with a five pitch tidal sea cliff route at Chair Ladder. We initially ab'd in to the wrong route, and then traversed across too low so by the time we topped out of Pendulum Chimney we'd finished seven pitches of climbing.

Ross and I finished on the Hard Rock route Bishop's Rib, although I fell off on a section helpfully described by Ross as "that was so easy, how did you manage to come off?".

Sentries Ridge

Despite making dozens of trips to North Wales, none of us had ever heard of this little scramble and hill, tucked away behind the Nantlle Ridge. It makes an excellent day out, with some superb, airy steps across the pinnacles of the ridgeline.

Snowy scrambling in Snowdonia

Cat, Louise and I tried to make a start on Dolmen Buttress but the extensive coverage of soft snow on the ledges was making progress pretty spicy. So we abseiled off and went for a scramble up Main Gully instead, a reliable route for all conditions with a heave over the chockstone as exciting as ever!

Will 'o the Wisp

Proclaimed in the guidebook as "one of the all-time Mid Wales classic routes", we found the crag at Craig Cywarch in a rather damp, vegetated condition. Undeterred, and hoping never to need return to this Classic Rock destination, we set off of a team ascent and were pleased to see the route improve considerably after the first, dripping pitch. Overall it was a rather cold day, clearly illustrated by the chilling temperature inversion in the valley below.

Lundy

I sailed to Lundy on the Saturday morning with Steve, Clay, Cat and Dave. Knowing the weather might close in for the rest of the weekend we made the most of the afternoon and headed straight for Devil's Slide. A few hours later and Steve and I had ticked the three classic lines of Albion, Satan's Slip and Devil's Slide itself. Racing back to the pub we barely made dinner, after which the wind and rain arrived for two days, granting us a return trip by helicopter!

Liathach

Our final outing of the week and Cat and I were the only ones to make it up to the summit ridge of Liathach. A fun and atmospheric scramble which was made easier by the very lean conditions on top.